Chapter 5

Dustin glanced at the paperwork, his voice level.

"Ever since Geraldine got pregnant, she hasn't been sleeping well. This is the only place she can get a good night's rest."

"You frightened her today. Consider this house an apology gift."

"It's sitting empty anyway. What difference does it make who lives here?"

Geraldine bit her pale lip and tugged at Dustin's sleeve.

"Never mind, Dustin. I've already done so much to wrong Rosie. I can't take this house."

He squeezed her hand. When his gaze shifted to me, there was no warmth in it at all.

"Rosamund, it's just one house. Don't be so quick to fight over things."

A throbbing ache pulsed through my head. I clenched my fists and forced the words out.

"Just one house? I'm fighting over it?"

"This is my home. My parents built it, brick by brick!"

"If you want to bring her in there today, you'll have to do it over my dead body!"

Dustin's brow furrowed, his eyes cold to the bottom.

"Rosamund, don't forget, your mother's still in the nursing home."

"With the scraps you make from part-time work, do you really think you can cover that?"

My heart lurched. My hands, hanging at my sides, wouldn't stop shaking.

A few minutes later, I stepped aside.

I watched their figures disappear through the doorway, and the door shut tight.

I couldn't hold it back any longer. I broke down sobbing.

Over the next few days, I started clearing out my things, piece by piece.

I didn't want to live here anymore, in a place that had once held so much happiness and now made me sick to my stomach.

I had just packed the last piece of clothing into my suitcase when a notification popped up. Geraldine had posted something new.

I opened it. It was a montage of videos.

Dustin had personally sawed down the pear tree in our yard, the one my father planted before he died, to build Geraldine a swing.

The solid-wood interior of the house had all been swapped out for shades of pink.

The flowers and plants my mother once grew had been pruned beyond recognition.

The wine I'd been saving for my baby had been poured out too.

Geraldine smiled brazenly at the camera.

【Someone who loves you never thinks your requests are unreasonable. They only feel they haven't spoiled you enough yet.】

A few seconds later, a new comment appeared under the post.

【Rosamund, this post is visible to you only. Do you like it?】

My fingertips went white around the phone. I dialed her number.

"Geraldine, you really are an ungrateful snake."

"My parents were so good to you all those years. Aren't you afraid this will come back on you and the child in your belly?"

The next second, a shriek came from the other end.

"Ah…"

Then Dustin's voice, cold and heavy.

"Rosamund, you actually sent a terrifying photo and called to threaten Geraldine!"

"If anything happens to her, I will never let you off!"

I was about to say I hadn't done any of it when a message came in from the boss of my online part-time job.

【Rosamund, you're fired!】

【Because of you, the mistress who broke up someone's marriage, our shop got hit with malicious returns and order cancellations. The losses are massive!】

【We've had to shut down for good, and I will absolutely come after you for the damages!】

I opened my laptop and found the shop buried under vicious one-star reviews. Some of them even had my photo attached.

Tears welled up and blurred everything in front of me.

I pulled up my chat with Dustin and hammered out the words, demanding an answer.

【So you're going to destroy my whole life for Geraldine, is that it?】

But the message went out, and there was no reply at all.

Just as I was about to go find him and get a straight answer, the nursing home called.

"Is this Ms. Swanson? Your mother just had a severe shock. She's in very bad shape. We've already rushed her to the hospital. Come quickly!"

My heart dropped like a stone. I set my grief aside and tore toward the hospital like a woman gone mad.

But the moment I walked in, the people online who knew nothing of the truth recognized me.

They swarmed and cornered me in the lobby, snapping photos and hurling curses.

Some of them even put their hands on me.

My mind began to slip, and I cried out, begging them to let me through.

But they only pressed in harder.

Only when the nurses' station threatened to call the police did they grudgingly release me.

I rushed to the doors of the emergency room, only to see my mother wheeled out beneath a white sheet.

I collapsed to the floor, wept until my voice gave out, and finally passed out.

When I woke again, it was already evening.

In a daze, I finished the paperwork and carried my mother's ashes back to the old family house.

From the heaps of clutter, I dug out my father's portrait and turned the gas up as high as it would go.

Just like when I was little, I lay down between them and pressed the lighter.

At that same moment, Dustin was peeling grapes for Geraldine, who had just finished her checkup, murmuring gently for the baby inside her to give its mother less trouble.

The next second, Aiden's call came through.

"Dustin, something's wrong! The old family house is on fire, and Rosie's still inside!"